The title of this blog entry seems awfully appropriate. What a weekend we had. Just when I felt down in the dumps with regards to all the effort and little interest in our house showings, God restored a bit of hope this weekend. Without knowing really where to begin, I will just say, it was nice to have had friends around this weekend when there was just so much going on.
Saturday morning was an early start. I received a call at around 8:30am requesting a house showing at 10am. Of course, from the disappointment of Friday's "no-show" and Kelly and I being far too pooped to clean up after dinner, I had a lot on my plate to get the house ready (yes, yet again, so tiring!) for 10am on Saturday. Kelly had to work, so I called her, angry and upset at the state we left the kitchen in, not necessarily anticipating such an early request for a showing (though we should know better by now that at any given time some agent may want to show our home to potential buyers).
Kelly called Krishelle. Krishelle was on-call last night and very tired. She came straight over, in her work outfit (scrubs) from being in the hospital all last night, and helped with looking after Ethan while I got the house in order. In one hour, I had the house glowing. And ready for 10am. Now, if only the clients would stay true to their word and show up this time. Or else this would seriously be the straw that broke my back. Thankfully, an agent and a couple showed up precisely around 10am to find our house vacated and in glorious order for them to view. (Krishelle, Ethan and I went for a walk around the neighborhood -- totally spying on these people of course -- and taking Noomz out on his Radio Flyer/wagon). The folks spent a good 10-12 minutes in the house, and a couple minutes outside, and I even noticed that the man was taking some photos (as I did when we were shopping around for a house in Blue Ridge). So it would seem that all was good and that they actually really had interest in our house - though I did not speak to them, but I am pretty sure they also 'knew' who we were - owners of the house. We were not exactly hiding our identity or anything.
Krishelle hung around and helped with keeping Ethan entertained and Kelly got home fairly early to have lunch with us and chit chat. Not long after, I had an appointment to go pick up some furniture that I had found on Craig's List online. The seller was only just minutes away, and so I was able to responed and go to the person's house and view the piece first hand in a matter of minutes (the posting on CL was only a couple hours old!). And I was able to get a really great deal on some fantastic storage pieces we need for when we move to Blue Ridge. I got this 3-piece wall unit (central mission-style armoire with two side units) all for $175! What a steal, no? My neighbors helped me move the furniture back to our place, and I have agreed to help them find some good furniture deals on CL, though this particular deal does not come all the time, I explained to them.
And so with one great showing, and one fantastic furniture find, my weekend was golden, though still had Sunday! We started making sushi Saturday night with J and K (see previous post) and went to the morning program at the Baha'i Center on Sunday (previous post). Sunday afternoon, I got another call from a person who saw my house ad for sale on CL, and called to see if it was already sold. We agreed on a showing that evening at 6pm. That time arrived, and the person was not here. I called, of course worried and skeptical about the person's motives. (can you blame me?) But only a few minutes late, she arrives. The showing went great, and she told me she was looking precisely for a home not too big, single level, because her elderly mom will be living with her, and stairs are out of the question! She even fell in love with my elephant ears and general gardening/landscaping design. But we shall see if this interest truly manifests in an offer or not.
We hung out with J and K (again) late Sunday evening and the girls (Kelly, Jessica, Krishelle) went on a baking rampage, making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, regular chocolate chip cookies, and a banana bread loaf! Hahaha... seriously, it was a bit much, especially since they started the whole process around 8pm, and you know how Sundays generally have a certain lull and quietness about it since the work week starts the following day. So the house was filled with warm oven-baked doughy goodness. And with tall glasses of cold milk, the weekend wrapped up all the more sweet.
This morning I got an email from my realtor/agent saying the Saturday showing (the couple) are really interested and have our house in their 'top 3' :-D Yay!!!! I don't know if it will win out of course, but they are supposed to give it some thought and put in an offer some time by the end of this week. I hope they do put in an offer, and that it is reasonable, so that we can make a deal and move on.
Oh!!! And how could I forget, yes, no longer the weekend, this morning (Monday) a gentleman came to pick up a flyer from our front yard, to whom I got his attention from down the street (Ethan and I were out early for a walk) and asked if he would like to see the house now. Of course he obliged and was totally interested and said would have his agent call mine right away. I sure hope so, because the more interest, the better the offers. But I just want one good offer of course :-D
And before this all happened, the moment Ethan and I took the wagon out for a spin, we found a turtle "out in the sunshine feeling fine" (a la Ethan's "Jungle Tumble" book) :-D I have the cute little shelled critter in some water in a pail. Don't know what I will do with it, but perhaps just have Ethan play and look at it for a bit longer and I will let it go. You know you live in the "tropics" when instead of rabbits or squirrels you find turtles in your yard!
:-D
As usual, they had a slide presentation of all the SARs (senior assistant resident -- don't know why they are called this actually) in which they made fun of most/all of them. It was good fun, and not that emotional though. The medicine dinners always seem more proper and formal than personal in my opinion. We managed to take but three pictures all night. I will post all here. I will certainly take more pictures tonight, which is the senior med/peds dinner - Kelly's graduating class of 6. It will definitely prove to be much more emotional for sure, since this intimate group/program has really grown close over the past 4 years. 
The Mostaghimi family babysat Ethan and put him to bed (in their home). THANK YOU!!! We left the festivities early (10pm) to hang out with Zhila and Parvaneh a little before taking Ethan home. What a great family we have in our colleagues and the Baha'i community. All will be terribly missed when we move to Blue Ridge.
Apparently, lightning struck a tree in Fern Valley (our home in Blue Ridge) and the jolt managed to travel down to the ground and damaged water pipes running from the neighborhood well (shared by three households) to the meters. As of yet, we don't know if any damage was incurred on the water pipes running from the meter to our house. Thank God for home insurance. And though the news of this made me feel terribly down as if nothing could get any worse, things are slowly looking up with our Durham house for sale. 
It is hard to survive and sacrifice so much to go through a residency training. And I have to say it is probably a lot harder trying to do a combined program like medicine and pediatrics. It is one year longer than most (4 instead of 3) and you find yourself in your second year of the program being called a "senior" to interns who end up, by the end of their first year, actually having more experience (than you - if you did med/peds) in either single discipline.
And now it is Kelly's class' year. Their time. They are the ones being celebrated this year. Can you believe it is now their time? The many senior dinners we've attended, and the emotions we saw in the graduating seniors of those years - so palpable. And now Kelly and her class take their rightful place.
And now, the group moves on to the next phase in their lives and professional development. Quite literally, the Duke med/peds class of '07 will be relocating to all four corners of the country - Seattle (Pacific Northwest), San Diego (Southwest/coast), Ithaca, NY (Northeast) and Georgia (Deep South) :-D
Saturday morning was an early start. I received a call at around 8:30am requesting a house showing at 10am. Of course, from the disappointment of Friday's "no-show" and Kelly and I being far too pooped to clean up after dinner, I had a lot on my plate to get the house ready (yes, yet again, so tiring!) for 10am on Saturday. Kelly had to work, so I called her, angry and upset at the state we left the kitchen in, not necessarily anticipating such an early request for a showing (though we should know better by now that at any given time some agent may want to show our home to potential buyers).
Kelly called Krishelle. Krishelle was on-call last night and very tired. She came straight over, in her work outfit (scrubs) from being in the hospital all last night, and helped with looking after Ethan while I got the house in order. In one hour, I had the house glowing. And ready for 10am. Now, if only the clients would stay true to their word and show up this time. Or else this would seriously be the straw that broke my back. Thankfully, an agent and a couple showed up precisely around 10am to find our house vacated and in glorious order for them to view. (Krishelle, Ethan and I went for a walk around the neighborhood -- totally spying on these people of course -- and taking Noomz out on his Radio Flyer/wagon). The folks spent a good 10-12 minutes in the house, and a couple minutes outside, and I even noticed that the man was taking some photos (as I did when we were shopping around for a house in Blue Ridge). So it would seem that all was good and that they actually really had interest in our house - though I did not speak to them, but I am pretty sure they also 'knew' who we were - owners of the house. We were not exactly hiding our identity or anything.
Krishelle hung around and helped with keeping Ethan entertained and Kelly got home fairly early to have lunch with us and chit chat. Not long after, I had an appointment to go pick up some furniture that I had found on Craig's List online. The seller was only just minutes away, and so I was able to responed and go to the person's house and view the piece first hand in a matter of minutes (the posting on CL was only a couple hours old!). And I was able to get a really great deal on some fantastic storage pieces we need for when we move to Blue Ridge. I got this 3-piece wall unit (central mission-style armoire with two side units) all for $175! What a steal, no? My neighbors helped me move the furniture back to our place, and I have agreed to help them find some good furniture deals on CL, though this particular deal does not come all the time, I explained to them.
And so with one great showing, and one fantastic furniture find, my weekend was golden, though still had Sunday! We started making sushi Saturday night with J and K (see previous post) and went to the morning program at the Baha'i Center on Sunday (previous post). Sunday afternoon, I got another call from a person who saw my house ad for sale on CL, and called to see if it was already sold. We agreed on a showing that evening at 6pm. That time arrived, and the person was not here. I called, of course worried and skeptical about the person's motives. (can you blame me?) But only a few minutes late, she arrives. The showing went great, and she told me she was looking precisely for a home not too big, single level, because her elderly mom will be living with her, and stairs are out of the question! She even fell in love with my elephant ears and general gardening/landscaping design. But we shall see if this interest truly manifests in an offer or not.
We hung out with J and K (again) late Sunday evening and the girls (Kelly, Jessica, Krishelle) went on a baking rampage, making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, regular chocolate chip cookies, and a banana bread loaf! Hahaha... seriously, it was a bit much, especially since they started the whole process around 8pm, and you know how Sundays generally have a certain lull and quietness about it since the work week starts the following day. So the house was filled with warm oven-baked doughy goodness. And with tall glasses of cold milk, the weekend wrapped up all the more sweet.
And before this all happened, the moment Ethan and I took the wagon out for a spin, we found a turtle "out in the sunshine feeling fine" (a la Ethan's "Jungle Tumble" book) :-D I have the cute little shelled critter in some water in a pail. Don't know what I will do with it, but perhaps just have Ethan play and look at it for a bit longer and I will let it go. You know you live in the "tropics" when instead of rabbits or squirrels you find turtles in your yard!
